I heart hearts

Instead of the usual warnings about the end of American democracy and what not, I thought I’d turn my eye this week to a concern of equal importance — the use of “heart” as a verb. \nIt all started with “I [heart symbol] NY,” an innocuous-enough phrase plastered on posters and T-shirts from coast to coast. The rebus was a winking gag bound solely for the bumper sticker and its ilk. Then, of course, the Internet had to get involved. Suddenly the emoticon <3 invaded our lexicon, finding its way into e-mails and instant messages. It was only a matter of time before it became acceptable to [heart symbol] or “heart” something in formal writing. The term soon entered the mainstream media, with Huckabee supporters shamelessly using the title of the film “I [heart symbol] Huckabees” in its campaigning, and others hitting back similarly (“Huckabee [heart symbol] higher taxes”). Now, it’s all over. In a recent Slate article, Laura Moser writes “Boy, did I heart Chicago when I moved here,” and in England’s Guardian newspaper, Oliver Kamm titles his piece on Huckabee “I (heart) creationism?” \nOf course, there is some debate as to the expression’s exact formet. Some try to avoid the actual symbol by putting “heart” in parentheses, brackets and other punctuation like the Internet’s ubiquitous asterisks (“I *HEART* YOU!”). Few have gone so far as to include the emoticon “<3,” but I suppose it’s only a matter of time.\nThough some may whine about the decline of the English language, I take a different view of the hearts that have verbed themselves into our language. \nAt this point, “hearting” is only acceptable so long as it’s done in jest, but I say we take it a step further. Why not accept “heart” as an acceptable choice between “like” and “love?” Consider how often you used to hear casual friends say that they “loved” each other, when in fact, they didn’t really feel much greater affection than a basic “like.” Now, you can just say simply “I heart you!” No more charade of some sort of over-arching feeble love. With “heart,” you can say what you actually mean, with just enough ironic irreverence to make it through the judgmental eyes of the hipster hordes.\nDoes this denigrate the idea of love? To the contrary, the “heart” will re-elevate love to its proper place as an overpowering emotion that we reserve for our true loved ones, not something to be tossed about with casual acquaintance. If we heart each other, over-used “love” can rest a little bit for the times we really need it. With any luck, we’ll be drunkenly slurring “I heart you, man!” all over Bloomington before long.\nThere is one final conundrum, though. How should we represent “hearting” in writing? [heart symbol]? A simple “heart”? Or, perhaps, some variant of the online <3? I like <3 for its mathematical possibilities (<4? <5? <$?) but for now, I’ll just use a basic, straight-up “heart” with impunity. \nI heart you, readers!